This study presents a design and evaluation of a mock circulatory platform, which can reproduce blood pressure and its waveforms to provide palpation experience based on the human cardiovascular physiology. To reproduce the human cardiovascular behavior, especially the blood pressure, the proposed platform includes three major modules: heart, artery and reservoir modules. The heart module reproduces source pressure exerted on the whole system with a controlled time-profile. The artery module consists of a resistance valve to adjust the open area of the vessel and a compliance chamber adjusting the wall stiffness of the ascending aorta. The designed platform was cross validated by comparing the theory with a lumped model, i.e., the windkessel model, the measurements from the mock circulatory platform and the real human body data. As a result, the ventricular and aortic pressure waveforms measured from the designed platform were well matched with those of the actual human body. Parametric studies regarding peripheral resistance and aortic compliance were done for the detailed correlation analysis between human cardiovascular physiology and blood pressure. Since the proposed platform is based on the actual cardiovascular physiology, adjusting the structural parameters of the components can reproduce realistic blood pressure waveforms in a controllable manner. This platform is applicable to blood pressure measurement sensor calibration, palpation training, and haptic feedback.

This study presents a database of central blood pressure waveforms according to cardiovascular health conditions, to supplement the lack of clinical data in cardiovascular health research, constructed by a cardiovascular simulator. Blood pressure (BP) is the most frequently measured biomarker, and in addition to systolic and diastolic pressure, its waveform represents the various conditions of cardiovascular health. A BP waveform is formed by overlapping the forward and reflected waves, which are affected by the pulse wave velocity (PWV). The increase in vascular stiffness with aging increases PWV, and the PWV-age distribution curve is called vascular age. For cardiovascular health research, extensive data of central BP waveform is essential, but the clinical data published so far are insufficient and imbalanced in quantity and quality. This study reproduces the central BP waveform using a cardiovascular hardware simulator and artificial aortas, which mimic the physiological structure and properties of the human. The simulator can adjust cardiovascular health conditions to the same level as humans, such as heart rate of 40-100 BPM, stroke volume of 40-100 mL, and peripheral resistance of 12 steps. Also, 6 artificial aortas with vascular ages in the 20-70 were fabricated to reproduce the increase in vascular stiffness due to aging. Vascular age calculated from measured stiffness of artificial aorta and central BP waveform showed an error of less than 3 years from the clinical value. Through this, a total of 636 waveforms were created to construct a central BP waveform database according to controlled various cardiovascular health conditions.